How bad can a 1st Birthday Party go wrong?

Over the weekend, I attended a relative's 1st birthday party.
It's quite disastrous.

Here's how.

What's good?

1. Beautiful and yummy cake from Pine Garden.
2. Everyone had more than enough to eat.
3. Packed food for every guests to bring home.
4. Close knitted family ties.

What's bad?

1. No formal invitation, resulting half the guest did not turn up (see above).
2. Bad quality balloons that kept bursting.
3. Screams.
4. Shouts.
5. Minimal decoration.
6. Homecooked food (I am not saying homecook food is bad, see Observations below).
7. Venue is extremely cramped.
8. Rose syrup drink?! Yucks!
9. No one had a lighter during cake cutting ceremony.

Conclusion:
It was the worst 1st party so far I had attended.
The 2nd worst is still awarded to the same relative.
Is that the reason why their friends, relatives and even siblings were too busy to attend this time?


Observations:

I am not saying homecooked food is a no no for party. A few dishes to show off your culinary skills will be awesome! However, I am very against the idea due to the following reasons.

1. Stress.
2. Sensitive to comments.
3. You realise your friends are dishonest - "Ya, the food is great!" while it sucks. Stop giving them stress.
4. Washing up.
5. Honestly, the food really sucks. Too dry, too hard, blunt and too spicy curry, too salty.

1st Birthday Party

My son's 1st birthday party was a great success.

What's good?

1. Nicely design invitation e-card from Smilebox.
2. Nice place, nice ambience at NSRCC.
3. Beautiful cake from CupcakeDivinity and Candles and Goodie bags from http://preciousbirthday.blogspot.sg.
4. Nice food from Neo Garden.
5. Great BBQ food from Neo Garden too.
6. Nice decorations.
7. Floating balloons.
8. Over 120 honourable guests.
9. My family are of great help.
10. Great get-together
11. Great friends.
12. Photo taking.
13. Laughter.
14. Enough seating.
15. Enough drinks.

What's not so good?

1. Not enough food! Because it's too yummy!
2. Birthday boy is cranky, he needed some sleep.
3. My boy had a bad haircut.
4. We were so busy that we forgot to display our son's electronic photo album done by Smilebox.
5. Mother-in-law is cranky too, she needed to feel important.
6. Colours of the balloons are abit too dull to my liking.

Conclusion:

1. It was a great party.
2. I am very happy with it.

Tips:

1. Book chalet 6 months in advance
2. Do up a party checklist
3. Assign jobs for your mother-in-law to make her feel important and keep her busy.